He had a hammer and a chisel. He had no machines, no money and no help from the government.
"When I started hammering the hill, people called me a lunatic," he said.
People told him he would never manage it, his nephew Dahu Manjhi later recalled. He was a poor man, they said, who just needed to earn a living and eat. Even Manjhi's own brother called him mad.
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Manjhi kept cutting. The mocking, he said, only "steeled my resolve."
Slowly, some of the people who had laughed began to help. A few brought him food. Some helped him buy his tools.